Former Becahi coach Al Blount is back in coaching

FROM KEITH GROLLER

Al Blount has a new job.
The former Bethlehem Catholic boys basketball coach (seen with two of his AAU players in the picture at the left) is now coaching at the Lincoln Leadership Academy on the East Side of Allentown and will be in charge when the program begins its first season in December.

Blount, a 51-year-old Dieruff High graduate, was 24-42 in three seasons at Becahi and 7-35 in the LVC.

However, his teams did score points. In fact, Becahi had three 1,000-point scorers under Blount in Pedro Perez, his son Al Blount, Jr., and Jake Hungarter.

Hungarter led the LVC in scoring last season at 24.4 points per game.

"I'm extremely excited," Blount said on Wednesday. "I took the summer off from basketball with the exception of my AAU program [The Feeder Program] because I needed to sit back and gather my thoughts.

"I was still involved but I still wanted to coach high school basketball. Fortunately [Sandra] Figueroa-Torres [Lincoln's principal] has a program she's growing here through her blood, sweat, tears and brains and I heard a lot about her and her vision for the kids here at Lincoln. And when I came over and talked to her and saw the school, I saw this as a good fit for me."

Lincoln is in its third school year and features mostly inner-city kids from Allentown and other districts who have struggled, often through no fault of their own.

"Our school was born out of a response to the conditions that many inner-city kids find themselves in when it comes to education," Mrs. Figueroa-Torres said. "Our main goal is to provide a high-quality edication to kids who typically don't have that opportunity. Our kids are succeeding. We've made our AYP [Adequate Yearly Progress[ score in our first two years in spite of the fact that 70 percent of the kids we had two years ago when we opened our doors were two years below their grade level in reading and math."

Blount, a counselor at Kids Peace for 20 years, is used to dealing with kids who have to deal with adversity.

"We do believe in our kids and do believe that they can and will succeed," Figueroa-Torres said. "We're very focused on developing character and integrity and sports is a huge part of that. Sometimes it is the hook to keep the kids in school and motivate them.. So we want to develop a basketball program and we want it to focus on teaching integrity and character through basketball.

"We believe that Mr. Blount brings a wealth of experience and has a background where he easily connects with our kids. We tell the kids: 'We are you; we were raised in the 'hood; we know hardship, we know what it feels like to have all of the odds against you and yet we made it. We know where they're at because we've been there ourselves and with Mr. Blount there has been an instant connection."

Lincoln will be a Class A program and will play a full 22-game schedule beginning with a tip-off tournament Dec. 9-10 at Kutztown High School.

Among some of the teams on the schedule are Oley Valley, Pius X, Panther Valley, Lehigh Valley Christian, Notre Dame-East Stroudsburg and Moravian Academy.

Grant Whary had been Lincoln's coach during the summer at the Stellar and SportsFest tournaments.

Whary left the program "by mutual agreement" according to Figueroa-Torres.

"Other doors of opportunity opened for Grant," Figueroa-Torres said. "He's a great kid. He has great potenial. I wish him well."

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